In this history of the origins of great religions from the Stone Age, sociologist Rodney Stark surveys the birth and growth of religions around the world, examining the prehistoric era of primal beliefs; pyramids in Iraq, Egypt, Mexico, and Cambodia; the "Axial Age" of Plato, Zoroaster, Confucius, and the Buddha; and the spreads of Christianity and Islam.

"Skeptics such as Richard Dawkins and Daniel Dennett have just lost their monopoly on the topic of religious evolution. Only a believer, Stark asserts, can fathom the origins and subsequent unfolding of the world's great faiths. In this wide-ranging investigation, Stark detects sacred reality—not pious deception—at the heart of transcendent beliefs shared by Aborigines and Anglicans. In their myths of the high gods, Stark contends, early tribal peoples glimpsed divine truths obscured in later civilizations when pharaohs and emperors lent government support to temple priesthoods more interested in maintaining a comfortable lifestyle than in serving God.... Some readers will resist Stark's comparative judgments; others will dispute his religious interpretation of modern science. But serious students of religion will recognize this as an essential sourcebook."—Booklist (starred review)